Changes in Aizu
by SharkAria
Summary: Sanosuke visits Megumi in Aizu to say goodbye. But then he keeps coming back . . .


A/N: I've written a lot of fanfic over the years, but would you believe this is my very first for Sano/Megumi? Just goes to show that it's never too late.

This is for mature readers. I played it fast and loose with canon, and this has nothing to do with the Hokkaido Arc. I didn't portray strictly accurate Meiji Era architecture, customs, or speech patterns, oops, but I tried my best without going back to school for a PhD in Japanese history.

Warning: There is a non-descriptive mention of Megumi's past sex life that isn't entirely happy, but it is consensual (though it occurs under false pretenses).

* * *

The moon isn't up, but the new gas street lamps illuminate the walkway just fine. Sano scratches the back of his neck and stares at the slash of blue-black sky between the rooftops. "So you're really moving back to Aizu."

"I'm taking the first train tomorrow morning," Megumi says. "I sold everything that I couldn't pack." Her kimono rustles as she shifts closer to Sano. "I miss the mountains. And they need more doctors."

Sano picks at his teeth with a fingernail. "Kenshin took the news well," he says over Megumi's head. It's been hard to look at her directly since she announced her intention to leave.

"Kenshin will be fine. Now Kaoru, on the other hand -" Megumi brushes her knuckles against the back of Sano's wrist. That's new. "I'll be traveling back down here in nine months or less to render medical assistance to her."

"What happens in nine months?" Sano asks, but he's paying more attention to the feel of Megumi's skin against his than the words coming out of his mouth.

"Oh ho ho," Megumi laughs, and finally Sano looks at her. Her face is glowing in the light of a kerosene lantern that's hanging from a late-night yakitori cart. "You don't know very much about a woman's body, do you?"

"I know enough," Sano mutters. _I could show you what I know,_ says the sake sloshing around in his gut, which Sano does his best to ignore. "So, spill. What's up with Jou-chan?"

Megumi whacks Sano's forearm. She must be feeling the sake, too. "Kaoru's going to have a baby, obviously."

Sano nearly trips over his own feet. "How do you know? With Kenshin?"

"No, with Enishi. Of course with Kenshin, roosterhead!" She grins. "I know because Kaoru didn't touch the pork, even though it's usually her favorite. And because she fell asleep in her rice. And because she overflowed with joy." Megumi touches Sano's sleeve. "I don't need to be a doctor to notice those things. But apparently I need to be more than a street thug."

"A street thug who's saved your life a thousand times," Sano grumbles, shoving his fists into his pockets. iMaybe she would shut up if you kissed her,/i the sake suggests. "Better a street thug than a sneaky fox," he says instead.

Megumi presses her lips together. "I am endlessly grateful to you. You know that."

"I guess you've saved me too, a few times," Sano admits, edging around an apology. He nudges Megumi to the left, onto the quiet, dark side street where she rents her little clinic space and the attic above, until tomorrow anyway. "Kenshin and Kaoru, with a kid. Guess they'll have to get married."

"I'm sure they'll work it out." Megumi stops walking and turns toward Sano, her white teeth flashing against red lips.

Sano's heart thumps in his chest. "Not like you have to worry about marriage," he blurts out. "No prospects for you, right?"

Megumi's smile falters. She flips her hair over her shoulder and sticks her nose up in the air and walks ahead, up to the clinic door. "I have better things to do."

"Heh. You and me both." Sano glances at the second story shutters above. When Megumi moved here, Sano and Kenshin dragged all her stuff over from the dojo and, together, wrestled her futon up the impossibly narrow staircase. In the months since, Sano has imagined lounging around up there, with Megumi resting her head on his shoulder and scritching his chin with her long fingernails. But that futon is surely gone by now, along with everything else. _There's still the floor,_ the sake reminds him. The bastard. "Listen, fox lady," Sano says, the nickname rolling across his tongue as he reaches out and touches her forearm.

She rolls her eyes, but she doesn't pull away. Then she stands up on her toes and strokes his cheek.

This is it, finally, whatever it is that Sano has never quite figured out how to get from her. He wills himself to wait and closes his eyes.

Then he hears Megumi's familiar laughter. "Oh, your breath! You must have drunk a liter of sake! Oh ho ho!"

By the time Sano opens his eyes, Megumi has already pulled her hand away, and she is sauntering across the clinic threshold. "Come visit me in Aizu sometime. If you're lucky, maybe I won't have a husband yet." And then she slams the door, and he's alone on the street.

* * *

"Thank you for telling me about the dangerous man on the loose, officer." Megumi's voice sounds muffled to Sano, owing to the fact that Sano has hastily crammed himself inside a large barrel labeled "foot powder". He pictures Megumi blushing and fluttering her eyelashes at the gap-toothed, balding policeman in the new clinic entryway and wishes he could punch something.

"You're right that an unmarried woman such as myself can't be too careful," Megumi continues, "especially if that brutish Mr. Sagara comes around."

Sano grinds his teeth in the darkness and sees red. She's gotta be flirting just to torture him.

"Yes, Zanza is a - a brute," stammers the officer. "He's wanted for -"

"Oh, I know all about Mr. Sagara's crimes. I'm lucky that the Aizu police will protect me from the likes of that big city thug. Oh ho ho! Now, please don't let me keep you from your important duties."

Something outside the barrel gets shuffled around, and then the bell on the door jingles. Megumi calls out, "Be sure to come back for all your healthcare needs!"

There's more rustling and a thunk, and then the top of the barrel slides away, and Sano is blinking away the light.

"You're lucky I was about to close up for the day," Megumi says, by way of greeting.

"I missed you too," Sano responds, taking in the appearance of the new clinic as his eyes adjust. The place looks a lot like the one back in Tokyo. A little smaller, maybe. Mustier. "Thanks for hiding me without asking any questions when I barged into your new place a few minutes ago."

"I'm used to it by now," Megumi says, brushing dust from the shoulder of Sano's dingy fighting tunic. "You look well." Is she being sarcastic? He can't tell.

"You too," he replies, and he means it. Her lavender overshirt is fresh-pressed, and she wears a glittering pin in her long dark hair. She looks rested. "Aizu suits you."

_Why are you here,_ Megumi's eyes seem to ask, but what she says is, "Do you need money?"

"What? No. I -" A hundred snappy comebacks spring into his mind and die on his tongue. "It's not that."

"Oh?" Megumi replaces the lid on the barrel and begins rolling up a loose bandage, then asks the question. "If not that, then why are you here now, in Aizu?"

It's a pain in the ass to explain, but he owes her that much, given that she just saved him from long-term imprisonment. "I wanted to say goodbye before I leave Japan. I've booked passage on a steamer headed west using a fake name. I set sail in a week."

Megumi frowns, and then her entire face settles into a placid mask. "Goodbye, then, Sanosuke."

"Goodbye," he answers reflexively. "No, wait, that's not - dammit, woman!"

She puts the bandage on a table and folds her arms over her bosom and tilts her head to the side. "If you're about to leave, then what, precisely, do you want from me now?"

Sano's life would probably be a lot simpler if he could answer that. But there's one thing that he can tell her, now that he has little to lose. "A kiss." He scratches the back of his head and looks up at the ceiling. "I don't want to run off without a goodbye kiss."

She lifts an eyebrow. "You stole all the way up to Aizu with the police on your tail to get - a kiss? From a spinster?"

"From the only woman in all of Japan worth kissing," he says before he can stop himself.

"No wonder you're leaving, with prospects so dim." She smiles, but her voice wavers.

His face flushes. "I know it's not proper, or whatever, but -" he shrugs and groans. "It was supposed to happen earlier. The night before you moved up here. You were going to kiss me but you thought I was too drunk or something."

She sighs and unfolds her arms. "Sometimes your arrogance astounds me," she says with a chuckle, then places her hand on his shoulder and lifts her chin and brushes her lips against his.

Sano hardly has time to blink before Megumi steps away from him. "There. Now you can travel the world with your mind at ease."

He opens his mouth to make a retort, but what comes out is unintelligible. He shakes his head touches his mouth and gazes at his fingertips, and then looks back at Megumi.

Megumi smiles, and there's something new in her expression - a feeling acknowledged, a decision made. "Perhaps you want another kiss, since we might not see one another for a while." Her eyes flit to the staircase at the rear of the clinic.

"Yeah," he agrees hoarsely.

"Come with me, then." Megumi takes Sano's hand in hers and glides up the steps. Sano stumbles along behind her.

By the time they reach the landing, Sano's ability to think has returned. If this is really going to happen, he's going to make the most of it. He wraps his arms around Megumi and holds her, just as he's been fantasizing since he escaped Tokyo.

Megumi returns his embrace and inhales deeply. She tucks her head under his chin and says into his chest, "This is not how I thought we'd get together."

Sano smirks as pride thrums through his veins. "I _knew_ you thought about me. I knew it." He didn't, actually, but he delights in this unexpected confirmation. "How did you think it would go?"

She nuzzles the exposed skin of his collarbone. "I imagined you'd throw me onto the futon and tear the clothes from my body, and take me in your arms and not let me go until sunrise."

Sano swallows as blood shoots straight to his groin. "Is that what you want?" he murmurs.

"Why else would I need a strong young guy like you?" She teases, or maybe she is being dead serious.

Hopefully it's the latter. "In that case," Sano says, grabbing her narrow waist and lifting her off the ground as she laughs, "show me your futon."

Megumi jerks her chin toward a low doorway, and Sano carries her through. He makes a point of living up to her dreams by tossing her onto the mattress. She goads him as he fiddles with her garment ties, and he cuts off her words with a long, slobbery kiss.

Eventually, and not without some difficulty, Sano gets them both naked. Megumi actually licks her lips when she gazes at Sano's scar crossed torso. Sano, for his part, just stares at her with his mouth hanging open. Then he lunges for her.

"You're sweaty," Megumi grunts into Sano's bare shoulder, between kisses, as he grinds up against her thigh.

Of course he is sweaty, here in this hot airless attic with the most beautiful woman in the world stroking her fingernails down his stomach, grazing her tongue across his bicep. He shudders and bites her neck.

"You're rough," she moans.

If she likes that, she will love what he has planned for those gorgeous tits of hers. He grabs one and squeezes.

"Ouch!" she grimaces, then shoves him away. "You don't know what you're doing," she mutters, rubbing her nipple.

Sano opens his mouth to protest, but there's little arguing with the truth. So he abandons his dignity and says, "Then teach me, fox. Tell me what to do."

"Clearly I must." Megumi sits up and push Sano down against the sheet. "Don't touch me until I say so," she commands.

Sano swallows. No woman has ever told him _that_ before. "Yes, ma'am," he says, giving her a mock salute, then rests his hands behind his head.

He expects her to straddle him, an act he's seen depicted in a _shunga_ print or two, but instead she twists all that long straight hair into a bun and leans down and puts her mouth right on his -

"What are you -" he breaks off with a gasp, and soon she's causing him to thrust uncontrollably, and his arms and hands are flailing and reaching for anything he can possibly grasp, which turns out to be the back of Megumi's head, and embarrassingly, record-breakingly quickly, he's coming harder than he ever has, he's sure of it; or in any case he would be sure if he could recall anything else right now besides this most perfect moment in all of his life.

"I said not to touch me yet," Megumi grumbles as Sano's limp cock pops out of her mouth. She extracts his gnarled fingers from her tangled hair and wipes a dribble of cum off her chin with the back of her hand.

"I - sorry," Sano slurs. "I couldn't really think straight there, 'cause it's, uh, been a while."

"I surmised you might need a practice round," Megumi says lightly. "I was right." A corner of her mouth turns up. "Fortunately, a man of your age and physical condition shouldn't take long to recover."

She's right about that, too. His cock twitches and begins to harden again within a minute.

"Ah," Megumi purrs, looking down at Sano's crotch. "Now it's my turn."

Sano nods slowly, ready to comply with her orders.

This time, Megumi climbs atop Sano and directs him to hold her hips steady. Her body seems to glow above him in the evening light. After what feels like an eternity but is probably only a few seconds, she sinks onto him, and as she moves, she touches herself in some specific way that makes her writhe and pant just as he had hoped she would, and soon she extracts orgasms from them both.

She's louder than he imagined. Better than he imagined.

Afterward, when Megumi is sitting up and brushing her hair, and Sano is flopped out and scratching his balls, Sano reflects that Megumi must have come by those skills somewhere, and not necessarily anywhere nice. He remembers that piece of shit Takeda Kanryu, back in the early days of the Kenshin-gumi. Sano reaches for Megumi's free hand.

Megumi sets the comb on the floor. "It wasn't by force, if that's what you're wondering," she says.

"You gotta give me more than that," Sano replies, then adds in a quieter voice, "If you want."

She shrugs and studies her nails. "For a time, Kanryu pretended to care for me so that I would keep manufacturing the opium. He said that once he made enough money, he would help me find my family and leave the drug trade forever. I was desperate enough to believe him." She tucks a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "He stopped sleeping with me after I learned of his true nature. From then on, he just threatened to kill me constantly." She laughs mirthlessly.

If Sano could break inside Edo Prison now and reach Takeda, he would tear the bastard apart. But Sano can't, so instead he says, "I'm sorry. I'd stay here with you if I could," though he has no idea if that's what Megumi wants to hear.

Shaking her head and smiling weakly, she says, "We were supposed to kiss in Tokyo, you were right about that. But you're not meant to loaf around Aizu, no more than I'm meant to follow street fighters around forever. We both have better things to do." She leans over and presses her lips to his, and her hair cascades around their faces.

They hardly speak for the rest of the evening. Sano clutches Megumi against him, and he tries to memorize every curve and dip of her body until he finally drifts off to sleep.

He awakens before dawn, but Megumi is already up, wrapped in a threadbare robe and thrusting stuff into a canvas satchel. "You need to go," she whispers to him as she tosses clothes in his direction. "The water delivery boy warned me that the police are coming back through this neighborhood. Obviously, you can't be here when they arrive. Hurry up and get dressed!"

Sano jumps out of bed and struggles into his pants even as Megumi urges him down the stairs. She continues, "I packed you some food and bandages and a little medicine. And some money too. Don't argue!" she barks before he has the chance to do so.

As Megumi reaches for the door latch, Sano pulls her into a tight hug and kisses her forcefully. "I'll be back some day," he promises.

"I might be married by then," she says to him, smiling and blinking fast.

"Yeah, right," Sano grins. "See you, fox lady."

He retreats through the back door, into an alley, and he doesn't look back to see if she's watching him.

* * *

A year and a trip around the world later, Sano docks in Yokohama. He takes the train to Tokyo, having cured his fear of locomotives in a monstrous typhoon somewhere past the Strait of Malacca. Since then, steam engine travel has seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to get places.

Sano enjoys his time with Kenshin and Kaoru and their toddler Shinji, and one day he learns from his former rival Saito that his criminal status has been mysteriously cleared from police records, but after a month he grows restless, and he buys a ticket to Aizu.

When he gets there, he finds that Megumi's clinic has expanded into the storefront next door. It's closed for the evening, but the second floor shutters are open, and he yells, "Oi, fox! You married yet?"

The door swings open, and Megumi stands before him, her hair tied back, her form obscured by a stained apron.

Sano hardly waits for Megumi to shut the door behind him before he backs her into a wall and gives her a ferocious kiss. She wraps her arms around his neck and scratches her nails down his back and sucks on his tongue and drags him to the floor. Without removing a stitch of clothing, they screw until they are both sweating and spent.

Things go that way for about a week until Megumi gets exasperated with Sano's clumsy pawing, and she insists that he try to learn to touch her the way she needs. He never gets it quite right, but one night he has his fingers inside of her and his thumb in just the right spot, and he gets her so close that she hardly has to do any of the work on her own, and she's soaked and smiling when she finally finishes.

Sano hangs around Aizu for a while, sleeping upstairs when Megumi treats patients, buying sake when Megumi gives him money, staring down street punks when Megumi complains that they scare off customers.

One afternoon, a kid hands Sano a flyer with the words "Riches in America!" printed across the top. There's a lithograph of a shallow water harbor called the Golden Gate and a tale of gold boulders littering the beaches of a coastal paradise known as California. The prospective adventure is too good to pass up. The next morning, he makes love to Megumi once more and leaves to seek out the Golden West, which, it turns out, is actually to the east.

* * *

Eighteen months pass, and Sano comes back to Aizu. The clinic now spans the whole first floor of the building, and when he walks in, a couple of young assistants are unpacking gauze from a crate. Sano ignores their startled questions and calls out in the direction of the staircase, "Hey, fox, you _still_ aren't married?"

Megumi walks downstairs and, with a smile, dismisses the helpers. After they leave, she slaps Sano in the face. Then she reaches up and she kisses him until he grabs her by the shoulders and holds her at arm's length just to catch a much needed breath. An hour later, when he has Megumi upstairs and naked on her back, he puts his mouth between her legs and makes her come so hard that the dogs in the street start howling in response.

"You're a little different from how I remember," she says afterwards, gulping air.

"I picked up a few tricks in San Francisco," Sano says, recalling the buxom Irish saloon keeper who had provided him a month's worth of lessons in both English and pleasing women in bed.

"I noticed," Megumi says. "I could get used to that."

"Better not," Sano replies. "I'm headed to Mongolia next week."

* * *

Nearly two years pass before he finds himself hopping off the train in Aizu again, an explorer's pack slung over his shoulder. He could purchase a Western suit and change out of his dusty, sweat stained travel clothes, or at least get a shave and slick back his now longish hair, but that might ruin the surprise of revealing to Megumi that he's impossibly wealthy and ready to stay with her, this time for good. It'll be so much more fun to show her his massive sack of Mongolian gold after he's made her come a few times.

As he walks up the street, he notices that the clinic building has been fitted with modern glass-paned windows, a few of which have been flung open to let in fresh air, and a new, heavy wooden door. Sano marches up to the threshold and calls out, "Oi, Megumi, you still not marr-"

The door swings open. A handsome but harried-looking man stands before Sano. He has short dark hair that was clearly combed and oiled at some point but is now stringy and mussed, and his smudged spectacles don't fully conceal the lines at the edges of his eyes. He wears a surgical tunic that's splattered with something brown. "Can I help you?" the man asks, a strained smile plastered to his face. Sano can hear someone retching inside.

"Uh - where's the doc?" Sano asks, peering around the man.

"I'm the doc. Well, I'm the surgeon," he specifies. The retching continues.

Sano scratches his head. "I mean Meg- Doctor Takani."

The surgeon looks Sano up and down, and Sano wonders if he's going to have to drop his gear and throw a punch. But then the man steps back and grins. "You're Sagara Sanosuke of the famous Kenshin-gumi! I've heard so much of your adventures. I was afraid I would never get to meet you. Please, come in." He bows and ushers Sano inside.

"Don't worry, this isn't all blood," the surgeon says as he removes his stained garment and stuffs it into a bin filled with soiled linens. "It's pus, mostly. But the patient is fine!" he assures Sano. "I mean, he's fine now. He looked pretty bad this morning."

The retching starts up again from the direction of a curtained corner, and Sano starts to feel a little queasy himself.

"Keiko, would you please give Mr. Yamamoto the anti-emetic and help him back to his house?" says the surgeon as he relieves Sano of his pack. "It's so heavy! You must have brought all kinds of treasures! Oh, and Keiko bring a bucket."

There's some shuffling and groaning behind the curtain, and then there's the familiar creak and jingle from the back door.

The surgeon beckons to Sano. "Come here, Mr. Sagara, I want to show you something." He guides Sano through a doorway and into a side room with drawers from floor to ceiling labeled in Megumi's exacting brush strokes. There's a marble-topped table below the street-facing window, with mortars and pestles of different sizes lined up, and a shelf filled with tiny brown and blue bottles. The pharmacy is just how Megumi described she would build it, when they actually talked about stuff between their frantic couplings.

"Look," says the surgeon as he points to a piece of parchment tacked to the wall opposite the drawers. "Megumi put your young friend's wife on bed rest during her pregnancy with the twins. And since Miss Tsubame couldn't work at the restaurant, she took up drawing. This one is of all of you! The Himuras, the Shinomoris, that dour police captain - the girl is too sweet, really - and there you are, next to Megumi!"

Sano peers at the portrait. Tsubame created wonderful likenesses of his friends, but she has drawn Sano from some old memories. In the picture his hair is short and spiky, his face is free of stubble, and his skin is clear and smooth. Megumi, of course, looks as flawless as ever.

Sano scratches his nose and turns to the surgeon. "So, who are you exactly?"

Before the man has the chance to answer, the front door creaks and jingles.

Megumi enters, carrying a sack and a parasol, both of which she sets beside the door. "The herbalist didn't have any dried ginger, so we'll have to do that ourselves - oh." She wears a simple blue tunic and a dumbstruck expression on her face, which quickly dissolves into a smile. "Sanosuke. I see you've met Hamada Hideki, my surgeon." Her chin quivers. "And my fiance."

Sano's jaw drops. "Your fiance?" he echoes.

"That's right!" interjects the surgeon gleefully. "Please forgive me, Mr. Sagara. I was so excited to meet you that I failed to introduce myself. And I've heard so much about your heroic deeds, saving the country from Kanryuu and Shishio and Enishi, that I feel as though I already know you." He grabs Sano's limp hand and pumps it with a Western style handshake. "Megumi, I know we were going to do inventory tonight, but shouldn't we have Mr. Sagara come to my house for dinner?"

"Dinner sounds lovely. And you can call him Sanosuke, I'm sure," Megumi says drily.

Sano blinks slowly, his eyes traveling between Megumi and the surgeon. "Yeah, of course, Sano's just fine." His own name sounds like a foreign language on his tongue.

The Hamada guy is still grinning foolishly. "I don't expect any more patients today, so I'll hurry home and have my chef start a nice hot pot for the three of us. Sagara - I mean, Sano, where do you stay when you're in town?"

"Uhh -" Sano's eyes shift up to the ceiling.

"Don't you usually rent a room at the Kuro Neko Inn down by the river?" Megumi prompts.

"R-Right -" Sano stutters like a clown. He must have left his brain behind in Ulaanbaatar.

"Oh, you can't possibly stay there!" Hamada shakes his head dolefully. "The whole waterfront is suffering from a terrible bedbug infestation. Look, I have a hot bath at my house and an extra room you can use for as long as you need it. Come with me now so you can wash up before we eat. I have a maid who will give you a good shave and wash your clothes."

As much as Sano wants to punch this dweeb right in his shiny stupid face, a bath and a shave and hot pot sounds pretty good. But it's the principle of the thing. "I couldn't -"

"Hideki keeps a whole cellar of Aizu's finest sake," Megumi says.

Sano's stomach rumbles. "Uh - well -"

"We'll see you in a few hours, my love," Hamada says. "I'll take excellent care of Sano!" he adds, pulling Sano out of the clinic by the collar.

* * *

Sano slaps his face, marveling at the smoothness of his skin. He's cleaner than he's been in a year; the hot bath and perfumed soap and shave and hair combing have transformed him, and now he can almost pass for a respectable guy. His clothes are drying out in the yard, and he wears a borrowed tunic.

Reclining on a plush tatami mat in Hamada's formal living room, Sano sips fine sake from a delicate porcelain cup. The cook is still finishing up the hot pot, but she left lots of snacks for Sano to munch on while Hamada bustles around the room, setting up for dinner and prattling away.

"I've met Kenshin twice now," says Hamada as he stuffs a chrysanthemum into a vase. "He has a gentle soul. It's hard to imagine him as the Hitokiri Battousai, slicing all those people up. The idea of that violent era turns my stomach, to be honest."

Sano raises an eyebrow. "Slicing people up turns your stomach? Isn't that your _job_?"

Hamada stares at Sano for a moment, then laughs heartily. "There's truth to that! But I cut into people with the intention of stitching them back together." His smile fades. "I am quite a good surgeon, you know, but my patients avoid infection and thrive because of Megumi's medicines. She is a brilliant doctor."

"I know she is, Hamada," Sano says, and the sake sharpens the edge of his voice. He should probably dull it down if he wants to keep his trysts with Megumi a secret.

Fortunately, Hamada doesn't seem to catch on. "Of course. Megumi has told me all about how she used to put you back together after those dreadful fights!" He picks up the sake pitcher and refills Sano's cup. "Sano, please, please call me Hideki. I hope to become as dear a friend to you as Megumi is."

That's not going to happen, Sano thinks, but he says, "Sure, Hideki," and wishes in spite of all this luxury that he were lying on Megumi's futon in her cramped room above the clinic.

Megumi arrives, finally. She wears a blue tunic and skirt set and has pinned up her hair as though she's already married. As she kneels before the table and sips her tea, Sano remembers her panting above him, naked and wild haired. Sano glances over at Hideki and imagines Megumi splayed out beneath the dorky surgeon, with his hair oil dripping down his face and his glasses all fogged up.

Fortunately, the maid comes in and serves the food at that moment. Soon, Sano is shoveling beef and onions and cabbage down his throat as Megumi laughs and Hideki beams.

"So, what's next for the business?" Sano asks during a lull in conversation, trying to conceal how he's been staring at Megumi's neck.

"Eventually, we hope to purchase the clinic building," Megumi answers. "The landlord keeps raising the rent in spite of all the improvements I made to the property."

"And if we buy the building, we can expand our services upstairs, once Megumi lives here as my wife," Hideki adds.

"Hideki!" Megumi exclaims, blushing as she glances at Sano.

Sano looks away and takes a big glug of sake.

"I'm sorry," Hideki says, evidently misinterpreting Sano's actions for embarrassment over the very thought of Megumi shacking up with a man. "I studied medicine because I'm no good at manners. Please forgive me for bringing up an intimate subject."

Sano exchanges a look with Megumi. _He thinks_ that's _an intimate subject?_ Sano wants to ask her. Maybe Hideki and Megumi aren't screwing, after all. "It's forgiven and forgotten."

"Anyway," Megumi says, taking control of the discussion, "That's the plan. But it's difficult to save up money because we keep treating patients who can't pay. Like you, Sano," she adds, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"I paid in muscle," Sano grumbles as Hideki chuckles. "Back when we lived in Tokyo, anyway."

Hideki ladles more soup into Sano's bowl. "And where have you been traveling this time?" he asks.

Sano slurps the broth. "Interior Asia," he says, resisting the urge to wipe his mouth on his sleeve. "I thought that America was the driest place I would ever visit, but the Gobi Desert makes Nevada look like a rain forest." He pours himself another cup of sake.

"Nevada?" Megumi asks.

"It's a territory in the United States. The California gold was gone by the time I got there - some say there wasn't that much to begin with - but there's a silver rush further east. People came from all over the world. South Americans, Europeans, freed slaves from the American war. And thousands of Chinese building a railroad."

"So many people there competing for a little metal!" Hideki exclaims at the same moment that Megumi asks, "Did you strike it rich?"

"Sort of. Found a nice seam of silver where others didn't think to look. I was living the high life for a while, out in a boomtown called Virginia City."

Megumi takes another sip of her tea. "Ah, but you lost it all gambling."

"That time, yeah." Sano thinks about the sack of Mongolian gold tucked away in his travel bag, then pushes the image from his mind. He looks at his nearly empty sake cup but thinks better of it and chooses his clay water mug instead. He meets Megumi's eyes as he drinks.

The screen slides open, and a maid pads in and whispers in Hideki's ear. Hideki's joyous expression fades. "Mr. Yamamoto has taken a turn for the worse. He can't leave his house, and I need to treat him immediately."

Megumi starts to rise. "I'll go with you."

Hideki pats Megumi's shoulder gently. "No, no. You were out late last night helping Mrs. Watanabe with that cough. I'll take Harue with me," he says, glancing at the maid, who nods and disappears. "Sano, can you accompany Megumi back to her home now that it's dark? And Megumi, please don't protest about propriety. Your safety is more important."

Megumi sits down. Sano can feel her eyes on him, but he can't bear to see how she might be looking at him at this moment.

"Sano," says Hideki. "I apologize for this abrupt end to a wonderful evening. It's been my pleasure getting to know you tonight, and I already consider you my true friend." He claps Sano on the back and smiles. "I will probably be out very late, but one of my other maids will let you in when you return from walking Megumi home. I look forward to a hearty breakfast with you tomorrow!" And with that declaration, he strides from the room.

Sano and Megumi sit together in silence, not looking at each other for what seems like a thousand years. Finally, Sano asks, "Now what?"

"Like Hideki said," Megumi says, her voice as soft as velvet. "It's time for you to walk me home."

"I know what you're thinking," Megumi says. They are the first words she has spoken to Sano on the long walk from Hideki's house to her place.

"Oh yeah?" Sano grunts. He watches a drunk stumble past the clinic, down the low-lit street.

"You're thinking, 'Don't marry that guy.'" She clutches her arms and shivers.

Sano sighs and looks up at the starry night sky. "I wish that's what I was thinking."

Megumi turns to Sano. "What do you mean?" she asks, her voice low.

Sano kicks a pebble off the walkway and into the road. "Fox, I hate to say it, but I like Hideki. He helps people, just like you. He's generous and happy and has a nice house, and he thinks you're a great doctor. You're living your dream with him."

"And what about you?"

"I have what I need. Well, almost." Sano tries not to think about all the ways he had imagined spending his Mongolian gold with Megumi. As he gazes into her eyes, he swears that he can see her remembering everything they've shared together over the years. "Maybe I could ask you for one more kiss, just for old time's sake."

"I can give you that," Megumi whispers.

Sano takes Megumi in his arms and presses just one sweet kiss to her lips, hoping that it conveys what he can't possibly tell her. Then he pulls back and jogs up the street, and he doesn't turn around to see if Megumi is watching him leave.

Hideki's house is dark when Sano returns. A sleepy maid lets him in and silently heads back to her quarters as Sano goes upstairs to his own room. Without changing into his sleeping robe, he lies on his futon, staring at the ceiling.

A few minutes later, he gets up and sneaks out to the yard to retrieve his own clothes off the line. He puts them on, even though they are still damp, and he places the borrowed garments on the guest bed. After that, he roots through his travel bag. The Mongolian gold is safe in its sack, wrapped in a pair of long underwear.

He creeps downstairs and places the sack of gold in the center of Hideki's formal table. He allows himself one more moment of imagining what it would be like to live here with his riches, with his belly full of sake and Megumi in his bed every night. From his bag he takes a scrap of paper and scrawls on it with a stick of graphite, "Buy the building. Save more roosterheads like me."

Then he leaves Japan forever.

* * *

Australia sucks.

The British colony is full of venomous snakes and giant spiders and evil two-legged jumping deer called kangaroos. Its waters are infested with bloodthirsty sharks and stinging jellyfish.

And the wildlife is bad, but the people are worse. The men all claim to be convicted murderers, and the women are just as likely to rob Sano as they are to sleep with him. After six months, Sano stows away on a rusting clipper ship bound for Singapore and eventually makes his way back to Japan.

He wonders if Megumi is knocked up yet. Maybe he needs to see her like that, fawning all over Hideki and about to expand her family, so that he can finally let her go. Even so, he gets a shave and a bath and clean clothes before he leaves the Aizu town center and heads toward her street - there's no need to barge in looking like a dirty fool this time.

The clinic building has been painted recently. A sign above the front door is neatly inscribed with the words, "Takani & Hamada Pharmacy and Medical Care".

Figuring that he might as well see what all that Mongolian gold bought, Sano takes a deep breath and pushes open the door.

A young woman in a clean white apron stops folding linens and gives Sano a smile.

"Where's the doc?" Sano asks, shifting his travel pack from one shoulder to the other.

"Which one?" the woman replies.

Before he can answer, he hears familiar footsteps coming down the stairs. Megumi wears a blue cap and loose matching tunic. She doesn't appear pregnant. "I thought I imagined your voice," she says quietly as she stares at Sano.

"It's really me," Sano responds, and he can't tear his eyes away from her even though it hurts to see her at all.

Megumi has a not-quite-smile on her face. She walks over to a desk in the corner and takes something out of a drawer and hands it to the helper. "Keiko, would you please give these to Mr. Ito up on the second floor? He was complaining that Dr. Hamada didn't give him enough herbs to relieve his stomach cramps."

"Of course," says Keiko, taking the medicine from Megumi and hurrying up the stairs.

Megumi glides gracefully over to Sano. "Why did you leave the gold?" she asks.

He takes a deep breath, then exhales. "Why do you think?"

"I thought you were saying goodbye forever."

"I did, too."

"But you're here now," she comments.

"I am. I couldn't -" Sano breaks off. He tries again. "You're happy here, with Hideki?"

Megumi laughs with her oh-ho-hos, and for a moment it is as if they are snuggled together under the covers again, sharing a joke, back in that other life they once shared. "Hideki and I are very happy. We have everything we could want. More, actually."

"More than a successful business and a good marriage?" Sano says, gesturing about the room. "You got another clinic across town or something?" He can't bear to ask about babies.

"Not exactly." Megumi looks down and pulls at her sleeves. "Hideki and I didn't get married."

Sano's heart seems to leap from his chest to his throat in a single beat. "Then why is his name on the sign?"

"We bought the clinic together with the gold you left, but we did so as business partners, not as spouses." Megumi looks into Sano's face, then returns her eyes to her sleeves. "Hideki could see that there was more than friendship between you and me. He told me shortly after you left."

So much for keeping secrets.

"It was easy for Hideki to discern because - well, because his heart belongs to someone else, as well." Megumi tilts her head toward the pharmacy, and Sano looks through the doorway to see a young man with slicked-back hair grinding up herbs. Suddenly Sano understands, for the first time, why Hideki was never falling all over Megumi the way most other men did.

"Hideki and I share great respect and affection, but we don't feel for one another what I feel for - we don't feel the way that husbands and wives should," Megumi says as she looks at her feet. "It's better this way. We both have what we desire, or enough of it, anyway."

Sano's head swims.

Megumi bites her lip and the corner of her mouth turns up. "So you're back. For how long this time? A week? A month?"

"Forever," Sano croaks, and though that wasn't the plan, he knows that he couldn't bear a different course of action.

Megumi rolls her eyes. "You don't need to lie to me. I wasn't a naive blushing virgin when we met, and I certainly didn't turn into one after you left." She glances at Hideki's boyfriend to make sure he's absorbed in his task, then whispers, "But you'll always have a place in my bed whenever you return, for however long you are here."

Sano takes both of her hands in his and murmurs, "Listen to me, Megumi. I'm done traveling. I'm done with seasickness and snakes and running from angry locals and never knowing where I'm going to sleep." It's all true, but it isn't enough of an explanation. "I just want to be with you."

She smiles sadly. "You'll feel differently after a few weeks of lolling around Aizu. You always do."

"No!" he says, and the man in the pharmacy looks up from his work. Megumi drops Sano's hands, and she blushes.

"Everything alright, Doctor Takani?" the man asks, stalking into the main part of the clinic. He's shorter but bulkier than Sano, and he appears as though he knows his way around a sparring session.

"Thank you for your concern, Akio, but this is my good friend, and we're fine," Megumi responds. "It's nearly time to close up the clinic, anyway. Why don't you help Keiko get Mr. Ito downstairs and back home to his family?"

Akio eyeballs Sano but follows his boss's orders.

Sano waits until Akio disappears upstairs, then says, "I planned to stay last time. That's why I brought all the gold here to Aizu instead of pissing it away, so that I could finally -"

"Oh." Megumi blinks once, then again. She opens her mouth, but before she has the chance to respond, Akio and Keiko and Mr. Ito all begin the clomping, juddering journey down the stairs. Megumi rushes up to help, and Sano holds the door open for the tangled patient and caregivers. After the two staff members and the old man make it out onto the street, Megumi slams the door and locks it.

"Finally, no more interruptions," she blurts out, and she grins, and for a moment she looks as young as she did when Sano first met her.

Sano reaches out and places his hand on her arm. "Look, I'll be in Japan for good, but I don't have to stay here. I'm not gonna keep interrupting your life when you have better things to do. I'll go back to Tokyo, and I can come visit when you want me." _If you want me_, he thinks but doesn't say.

Megumi shakes her head and pulls off her cap and smooths out her hair. "Stupid roosterhead. I want you. Always have, always will."

It's like the floor has opened him up and swallowed him whole. "Oh," he breathes.

Fortunately, Megumi doesn't wait for Sano to say anything else as she leads him up the staircase. The second floor has been converted into a mix of storage and patient exam spaces, but her quarters are in the same place. There are a few new paintings on the wall, and a thicker comforter on her futon, but otherwise the room hasn't changed. She lights an oil lamp and opens a window to let in the evening air.

For the first time that Sano can remember, he takes the time to undress Megumi without rushing. Though he has hungered to see her body for years now, he finds himself looking away or closing his eyes as he reveals her skin, as if she is too bright to view directly. He lays her down and covers her body with his, and when he slides inside of her, she sighs in clear contentment. It's slow and quiet and different than all the times before, with a promise of something new to come.

"This is really what you want?" Megumi asks afterwards. Her hair is draped like a curtain across her shoulders.

"Pretty much." Sano stretches and yawns. He scratches his armpit as he looks at her. "You?"

"It's close enough."

Close enough? Sano can do better than that. He slides a hand along the curve of Megumi's waist. "Hey, since you're still not married -"

"Don't start up with that again," she laughs and rolls onto her back.

"Do you want to be?" Sano asks. His tongue is thick in his mouth.

Megumi lifts one eyebrow. "Be what?"

"Married." He inhales deeply. "To me."

She observes him for a while without speaking. For too long, really. His stomach twists as she stares.

"Sure," she says, finally. "Then you'll _have_ to stop teasing me about it."

"I promise." His heart beats loud in his ears as he leans over to kiss her. He smiles as he whispers against her lips, "Should I confess that I've loved you all these years?"

"I already knew that." Megumi embraces him.

"And?" Sano leans back and pulls her on top of him, and he can't stop grinning.

"I didn't always like you," Megumi says, wrapping her legs around him. "But I've always loved you."

* * *

[the end]

A/N: I don't really think that Australia sucks. Thank you for reading and reviewing!


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